Loulie Jean Price

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loulie_Jean_Norman

Loulie Jean Norman (March 12, 1913 - August 2, 2005) was a coloratura soprano who worked with arranger Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins and Norman collaborated on a number of albums. Norman was also a member of The Rhythmaires and the Ray Conniff Singers.

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For Disney, she was the singer of the soprano opera-singing ghost in Disney's Haunted Mansion ride. She also voiced Penelope Pinfeather in Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom.

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Loulie Jean Norman (1913-2005) was a studio actress and vocalist whose background roles contributed greatly to many film and television productions from the 1940s to the 1960s and enhanced the performances of other actors. Having a remarkable vocal range, she was best known for singing the theme to the original Star Trek television series and for being the singing voice of Clara in the film version of Porgy and Bess. During her long career, she performed as a back-up singer for such major acts as Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, Ray Charles, Dean Martin, Frankie Lane, Bing Crosby, Sam Cooke, and Elvis Presley and made regular appearances on the Dean Martin Show, the Carol Burnett Show, and the Dinah Shore Show. Although Norman was much in demand during her many decades in the entertainment industry, she never became a major Hollywood name or sought fame for herself, preferring a more private life centered on her family and friends.

Norman was born on March 12, 1913, in Birmingham, Jefferson County, the daughter of Edward and Rebecca Norman; she had three brothers and a younger sister. As a student at Phillips High School, her high clear soprano voice drew favorable attention in a presentation of Victor Herbert's operetta Naughty Marietta (1910). At Birmingham-Southern College from 1931 until her graduation in 1933, Norman was active in all its musical organizations, often as an officer. She also formed a quartet called The Blue Shadows, which included future composer Hugh Martin, and staged the musical Of Thee I Sing (1931). During her time in Birmingham, Norman performed in numerous local clubs, on radio shows on WAPI, and in the Birmingham Little Theater.

Around 1936, she moved to New York City, where she became a model and a singer on radio shows. She started her professional career singing with Mel Tormé and his Mel-Tones, an early jazz-influenced vocal ensemble. She married Norman Henry Price, a decorated World War II pilot, sometime in the late 1940s, and the couple would have four children. The family moved to Panama City, Florida, where Price reportedly taught flying to famed actor Clark Gable, and Gable would become a life-long friend of the family and aid in Norman's return to performing. The Prices soon moved to Los Angeles, and Norman resumed her entertainment career as a studio singer, although on a more limited basis so that she could be home with her family.

Norman's recording experience was extensive, and as a busy session singer in Hollywood, her impressive vocal range filled a need for many composers and producers. She provided vocal backup for the soundtrack of the Irving Berlin film Easter Parade (1948) and performed as a background singer in Brigadoon (1954) and The Prodigal (1955). Perhaps nowhere is Norman's remarkable vocal range more evident than her rendition of "Vocalize," performing as the voice double for Jane Powell in the film Athena (1954). She gained her greatest renown, however, as a voice double for Diahann Carroll in Otto Preminger's 1959 film adaptation of the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess, especially for her rendition of "Summertime." The film won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and an Emmy for its soundtrack. She often appeared with comedic orchestra leader Spike Jones and His City Slickers and sang on his studio album The Wonderful World of Hari Kari (1960). Norman was one of the female singers who accompanied Elvis Presley in the soundtrack session of "Moonlight Swim" from Blue Hawaii (1961), an album that repeatedly occupied the top spot on Billboard magazine's Top Pop LPs chart. She served as a voice double for Juliet Prowse in another top Presley film, G. I. Blues (1960), and for Stella Stevens in the John Cassavetes film Too Late for Blues (1961). Norman provided the voice accompaniment for "The Princess Waltz" in the 1960 film Cinderfella with comedian Jerry Lewis. There is some debate about whether Norman provided the voice accompaniment for the smash hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (1961) by The Tokens. Family members claim it was Norman, but independent sources recognize New York opera soloist Anita Darian. Both had similar high-pitched soprano voices.

Norman's most culturally recognizable performance is the haunting vocal track she provided for the theme to the original Star Trek television series that ran from 1966 to 1969. She provided vocal work, usually uncredited, for numerous animated movies, such as the Academy Award-winning Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom (1953), and for the Disney songs "Melody" (1953) and "Country Bear Jamboree" (1972) and she can be heard still as the sound of the eerie ghost at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Her performances as one of the original Ray Conniff Singers, whose unique renditions of traditional melodies that brought national acclaim from 1959 to 1971, are her most enduring and unheralded legacy. She sang with various other groups, including the all-female G-6 ensemble and the Ralph Brewster Singers. In 1980, at age 67, Norman sang the soprano solo in "The Future: Sound Without Words" for Frank Sinatra's album, Trilogy: Past Present Future (Reprise).

Loulie Jean Norman died on August 2, 2005, at her home in Studio City, California, at age 92. By virtue of her personality, clear and flawless voice, and connections, she was one of Hollywood's most noted vocalists and sopranos, although she never became well known because so much of her work was behind the scenes. A close friendship with former Birmingham-Southern classmate Hugh Martin, who facilitated her career and even composed some of her songs, enabled her to perform in so many productions for so long. Norman was not only widely respected as a mentor for younger singers but for her love of life, family, and friends, which always exceeded her ambition to become a major Hollywood star.

Loulie Jean Norman Price (March 12, 1913 - August 2, 2005) was a coloratura soprano who worked with arranger Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins and Norman collaborated on a number of albums. Norman was also a member of The Rhythmaires and the Ray Conniff Singers.

Norman was born in Birmingham, Alabama to Edward R Norman and Rebecca Emmie Chambless Norman. During her adolescence in Birmingham at Phillips High School, and later at Birmingham–Southern College, it became apparent that she was a gifted soprano with a four-octave range. Initially she wanted to pursue opera but she decided to move to New York to try for a career as a radio singer. Her beauty led to modeling jobs and in 1936, she joined The Rhythm Singers on Kay Thompson’s Chesterfield Program. She married naval pilot Norman Price and eventually moved to Los Angeles where they raised four children. In 1940, Norman was selected as the summer replacement for Dinah Shore on the NBC radio program The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street.

Norman became a member of the successful singing group The Campus Kids, who worked with Kay Kyser. Another member of the group was Judd Conlon and he formed a new group called The Rhythmaires which began as backing singers on Bing Crosby’s Philco show. Crosby singled Norman out several times on radio for solo passages which required an obbligato. She was once introduced by him as "The Lorelei from Birmingham, Alabama;" another time as "The Hartz Mountain Canary." A favorite standard of Crosby's, Whispering Hope, was reprised on his Chesterfield show with his brother Bob Crosby, and Norman was given the role of performing their sister Catherine’s part.

Norman appeared on Mel Torme’s recording of California Suite, and many popular arrangers and conductors used her on their albums. She recorded with Sam Cooke and provided the voice of The Future on Frank Sinatra's Trilogy album.

Norman contributed to several films: The Big Hangover, Dream Wife, G.I. Blues, Blue Hawaii (in which she sang with Elvis Presley on Moonlight Swim), Too Late Blues, and A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Jerry Lewis secured her for the role of the Princess for the cast of the soundtrack album of Cinderfella.

Her television credits included frequent appearances on The Dinah Shore Show, The Dean Martin Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. Norman delivered the non-lexical vocables over Alexander Courage's opening theme song for the first two seasons of Star Trek. The music was re-recorded without Norman’s voice for the show’s third season so the producers could avoid paying her royalties. During the 1960s, she recorded as a member of various easy-listening choral groups, most notably the Ray Conniff Singers.

Norman voiced Penelope Pinfeather in Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom. She was a member of an all-female singing group, the G-6, with Henry Mancini's wife. Norman died on August 2, 2005 in Studio City, California.
- from Wikipedia 16-Jul-2016

Note: Social Security records show she may have been born in Birmingham Junction, Shelby County, Alabama.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 24 2024, 16:57:08 UTC